Lay of the Land
by spacefemme
Summary: It doesn't take long for Jessie to get used to new people and places. It takes surprisingly long for Buzz to get used to her.


"Hey, spaceman!"

Buzz was jolted from watching Rex finish his game. As adamant as Rex had been about not needing to play anymore, he had given in and made another attempt to defeat Zurg, out of sheer satisfaction at having learned the secret to winning.

"Huh? Oh," Buzz cleared his throat. "Afternoon, ma'am."

The Davises had gone to a family friend's birthday party, and Andy had taken Woody and Bullseye along, so the new girl was without anyone she'd already gotten to know properly. Not that that was really a problem for her. She'd greeted everyone else in the room as if they were all old friends, holding back very little of herself. She didn't see any point in pretending to be reserved. After all, they were gonna be spending a long time together; shouldn't her new neighbors have known who she was out of the gate?

"So you've been here awhile, haven't ya?" Jessie said. "Mind showin' me around some? I don't quite have the lay a' the land yet." She rested her elbow on his shoulder and gestured toward the open door.

The suggestion had come from Woody's rather observant lady friend. Her reasoning had been that she was really one of Molly's toys and didn't spend quite as much time in Andy's room, and Jessie hadn't questioned her, only smiled and raised an eyebrow.

Buzz saw no ulterior motive. He wasn't dense, but he wasn't the greatest at reading people. To his credit, though, two days in a new home really wasn't quite enough to get used to the surroundings.

"Yes - I mean no, not - not at all," he said, wondering if he'd noticed before how green her eyes were (he had - several times).

"Great!" she cheered, startling poor Buzz. Nobody was used to her, either. "Let's go!" She jumped down from the desk, waited for him to follow, then grabbed him by the arm and ran out of the room to the staircase. She climbed up the rail and slid down the banister, not noticing at first that Buzz was taking a more conventional route.

"Hey," she called up. "Why not fly down? You have wings, don'tcha?"

"Yeah, I sort of learned the hard way to use them sparingly."

"Right," she nodded slowly. "Wouldn't want your arm to pop off again. But hey, nothin' a little tea can't fix, huh, Ms. Nesbit?"

"Wha- how did you…?"

"Woody and I had a lotta time to talk before you guys showed up."

"Of course you did," he sighed. He would have kicked himself, but he was embarrassed enough, and losing his balance and tumbling down the rest of the steps would hardly remedy the situation.

"Hey, your secret's safe with me," she assured him, knowing from the look on his face that he wasn't quite ready to laugh that off. "Want me to remind ya to throttle Woody when he gets back?"

He finally reached the last stair and met her in the living room.

"That'd be helpful, yes."

Her sort of half-snort half-chuckle was nearly as charming as her excitement that Andy's family had " _Two_ TV sets?! What kinda dough are they rakin' in?"

* * *

Nobody wanted to say it, but this had been a long time coming. Molly was in the second grade now, and was insisting that she didn't need her "baby stuff" anymore. At least it was a yard sale, and she wasn't shattered or anything. Bo had been sort of briefing Woody in recent months on how to handle it if this happened; told him she loved him, she would be okay, they should make the most of whatever time they had left, and after that, it might be best to just let her go.

Jessie didn't know whether they had mutually agreed on that, but Woody was sure making it seem like they hadn't. She tried to help the others make him understand why they couldn't go and get her out.

"She's not stuffed, Woody! She could fall off Buster and break, someone could see us…And even if we could go down there, how much longer d'ya think Molly's gonna hang on to 'er?"

"So, what - We just let her get hauled off?" He yelled, gesturing out the window.

Buzz and Jessie glanced at each other, silently deciding which one would give him the final answer.

"We don't have a choice, Woody," Buzz finally replied. "I'm sorry."

The other toys were staring.

Woody huffed, "I hope you two don't ever have to go through this."

"You think this is easy on us?" Jessie stepped toward him, but was stopped by Buzz. She glared straight ahead at Woody. "You're not the only one she was important to." She walked past him and scaled the desk, settling next to the window and hugging her knees, trying to keep herself from sobbing, and pretending not to hear Woody ask _What if it was her, Buzz? Would you be sayin' the same thing?_

Woody probably wasn't going to talk to either of them for at least a few hours, give or take, so Buzz went up to check on the "her" in question.

"Are...you okay?"

"No more so'n you," she muttered.

"Anything I can do?"

 _You can tell me why you're so scared of me_ , she wanted to say, but maybe now wasn't the time to have that conversation. One dilemma at a time.

* * *

Jessie had already instructed the rest of Bonnie's toys not to tell Buzz about the… "other" Lightyear. She was saving it as reassurance for him if he ever somehow found out he'd been brainwashed into assaulting and imprisoning his friends. It'd be a lot to take in. That, and she found it kind of funny that he didn't remember. Even when he asked directly how she knew that would happen when they played a pasodoble, she shrugged it off and said it was a mystery.

Bonnie was going to a slumber party that night, and had decided to bring all her "girl toys," namely Jessie, Dolly, and Trixie, so they could play with the girls from Sunnyside, too (she was leaving Mrs. Potatohead at home with her husband per Andy's past request). Unless Bonnie got homesick during the night and had to come home, Buzz wasn't going to get a real answer in the next twenty-four hours or so. He did have a bit of time to try and get it out while Mrs. Anderson was helping Bonnie pack her overnight bag, but Jessie remained tight-lipped.

"At least tell me how _you_ knew the routine," he bargained.

"Hey, I was just followin' your lead." She leaned against Bonnie's rocketship backpack, where Trixie and Dolly were waiting.

Woody overheard and scoffed, "Sure ya were, Jess."

"Do you know what that was?" Buzz asked.

"Uh…" Woody looked at Jessie and saw a _no you don't_ face. "Nope. No clue. Sure was fun to watch, though."

Before Buzz could call their bluff, they heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Now go pack your PJs and grab your toys and we'll get going," Mrs. Anderson said, car keys jingling in her hand.

"Oh! I gotta get back in the bag," Jessie whispered as they heard Bonnie bounding toward her room. She pushed the purple button that opened Buzz's helmet. "See ya in the morning. Love you." A kiss on his cheek, and everyone resumed their positions.

"Hi toys!" Bonnie chirped as she went to her dresser to get her DJ Bluejay t-shirt and polka-dot pajama pants. She stuffed them in the drawstring bag with her toothbrush and change of clothes and zipped up her rocketship bag. "Bye toys!" She slammed the door shut in her excitement.

Most of them waited until the Andersons were out the door to get up and continue going about their business. Buzz didn't say anything at first, just looked wide-eyed at Woody, scanning for any shared surprise. Woody had a fist to his mouth and was trying to contain his laughter.

"Yeah, that seems about right," he said, chuckling.

As much as Buzz had been caught off guard, he'd also learned after some time that it was foolish to continue being surprised by anything Jessie did. He smiled.

"It does, doesn't it."


End file.
